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Old 01-17-12, 12:45 PM   #183
AC_Hacker
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Geo NR Gee View Post
Has any of you used the foil backed foam board for the staple up plates on the radiant floor heating? Sitting here in my living room with cold feet and thinking how nice it would be to have that warm feeling.
If you do not have a basement, and the area you want to heat is on the ground floor, you will have heat loss. The foil faced insulation board is a very good idea for your situation. In fact, if you want radiant floors, you would want the maximum insulation between your heated floor and the unheated space below, if that is the case.

And staple up with spreader plates will work for your house, but the feed temperatures required to drive the heat into the living area will be fairly high, in the order of 160F and up. You will not be able to get this temp with a heat pump... the current technology goes to about 120F to 130F... your feet will still be cold.

There are above floor solutions that will do it however. There is a company named WarmBoard that makes a product that should work well. Their first product was a hydronic subfloor system that would get put in before the floor went down. They just started making a top of floor product that can go over the sub floor.

What makes WarmBoard good is that the entire panel is covered with relatively thick (twice as thick as other similar systems) aluminum which conducts the heat evenly over the entire surface. This product will work with heat pump hydronic feed temps. Robust insulation is still required.

There are other manufacturers of similar aluminum-surfaced systems that will likely need gas or oil or electric boilers.

There is another option, which is electric floor heating mats that you could put on the floor in the areas of your house where you spend "down time". Again, robust insulation should go under the heated area.

-AC_Hacker
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